Researching Assistance to Children in Child Protection Proceedings |
Why Am I Being Asked to Take this Survey?
If you have received this survey, it means you were identified as a person who knows much about child protection practice in the developing world and might be able to help us gather more information on the assistance children receive during child protection proceedings.
Articles 19 and 20 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child requires State Parties to take necessary measures to protect children who suffer violence within their families and provide special assistance to those children who cannot remain in their home. Article 12 of the CRC ensures the child the right to be heard and to participate in proceedings resulting from the State’s intervention to protect the child.
Although the CRC does not specifically state that these child victims of abuse and neglect have a right to “legal and other appropriate assistance” as do children facing a juvenile justice proceeding (Art. 37), numerous commentators have recognized that such assistance is an excellent way to ensure that the child’s voice is heard and her rights are respected (e.g., CRC General Comment 14, para. 96).
There are numerous organizations, NGOs, and government agencies that work with abused and neglected children and assist them during legal and administrative protection proceedings. This survey is designed to learn more about organizations and agencies that are doing this valuable work of providing assistance to child victims during the court or administrative protection process. We are trying to catalog the various services available, especially in the developing world; understand the forms this assistance takes; and obtain insight on how we can expand and improve these services.
As you will see, this survey is especially interested in learning whether and how organizations are providing representation to children within the child protection process, whether that is an administrative process or a judicial process.
This survey is being conducted in conjunction with the dissertation I am preparing in partial fulfillment of the M.St. degree in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University. Its working title is “The State’s Obligations Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child to Provide the Child with Legal and Other Appropriate Assistance in Child Protection Proceedings.” Professor Jaap E. Doek is my dissertation supervisor.
Although the CRC does not specifically state that these child victims of abuse and neglect have a right to “legal and other appropriate assistance” as do children facing a juvenile justice proceeding (Art. 37), numerous commentators have recognized that such assistance is an excellent way to ensure that the child’s voice is heard and her rights are respected (e.g., CRC General Comment 14, para. 96).
There are numerous organizations, NGOs, and government agencies that work with abused and neglected children and assist them during legal and administrative protection proceedings. This survey is designed to learn more about organizations and agencies that are doing this valuable work of providing assistance to child victims during the court or administrative protection process. We are trying to catalog the various services available, especially in the developing world; understand the forms this assistance takes; and obtain insight on how we can expand and improve these services.
As you will see, this survey is especially interested in learning whether and how organizations are providing representation to children within the child protection process, whether that is an administrative process or a judicial process.
This survey is being conducted in conjunction with the dissertation I am preparing in partial fulfillment of the M.St. degree in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University. Its working title is “The State’s Obligations Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child to Provide the Child with Legal and Other Appropriate Assistance in Child Protection Proceedings.” Professor Jaap E. Doek is my dissertation supervisor.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at trawlings@tomrawlings.com
Thank you,
Tom C. Rawlings